Why does a black box keep showing up on my tv?

Question

When I watch tv ( I have a SONY) I get a black box that comes up on the tv screen. I have to hit the tv menu button or turn the tv off to get it to go away, but it ALWAYS comes back. It happens more often on some channels than others-- like the Food Network and it's so annoying that I can't even watch these channels anymore. Any help would be so appreciated! Thanks!

Answer 1

do u have the caption on. cause sometime when u have it on sometimes a big black box pops out where u cant see anything but 1" aound the tv

Answer 2

looks like someone has the v chip it this parental lock that needs a code to turn off

V-chip is a generic term used for television receivers allowing the blocking of programs based on their ratings category. It is intended for use by parents to manage their children's television viewing. Most 13-inch and larger televisions manufactured for the United States market since 1999 and all units as of January 2000 are required to have the V-chip technology. Many devices similar to the V-chip have been produced.

The V-chip works much like closed captioning as it uses the vertical blanking interval in the television signal to send and receive a special code in the programming which indicates the show’s score according to a simple numerical rating system for violence, s*x, and language.[1] The programs' signals are encoded according to their rating, on line 21 of the broadcast signal's vertical blanking interval using the XDS protocol, and this is detected by the television set's V-chip. If the program's rating is outside the level configured as acceptable on that particular television, the program is blocked.

While some believe the V-chip technology was developed by Tim Collings while he was an engineering professor at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia; this is not the case. According to the patent documents and several renowned scientific journals, an Air Force Captain by the name of Carl Elam invented the V-chip. As this article states, it was fought in a court of law and Mr. Elam won the rights. [2]

The V-chip has a 4 digit numerical password in order to keep older children from changing its settings. However, it can be overridden by anyone who read the television's manual to find out how to reset the password to 0000 (built into the V-chip in case the parents themselves forget the password that they set).

The name V-chip is widely believed to come from the word "violence," but an interview with Tim Collings reveals that it was intended to stand for "viewer control."[3]

Answer 3

I used to have this problem with my sony tv, apparently it has to do with blocking channels as well as the parental lock. Go into your settings to ensure that channel block is off and you should be ok.